Namesake Names: Honoring family and friends

In choosing a name, there’s nothing more meaningful than paying tribute to a beloved family member, ancestor or friend. Namesake names can connect your child to her heritage, and convey the essence of a loved one, bestowing their most admirable qualities on your child. Personal heroes of the past or present can form the basis of worthy namesake names as well.

Would you approach this by:

Using the name verbatim as a first name?

Modernizing or modifying it in some way? Changing Mildred to Millicent of Millie, for example? Finding another name with a similar meaning?

Using it as a middle name?

Considering the honoree’s middle or last name if you didn’t love their first?